Thursday, March 28, 2013

On the eastside and the westside. I saw S.O.E. by Jami Brandli in Atwater Village on Monday and it's well worth seeing. Funny and weird and creepy and scary and claustrophobic and I supported it and know the actors and playwright so I'm not at all objective but I think you should go check it out. Here's a link to the site with all the details.

And The Nether by Jennifer Haley at the Kirk Douglas in Culver City is just about the hottest play I've ever seen there. I still don't exactly know what I think of it but if you care about L.A. theater at all, you should probably go. Don't sit too close, though. Not because you'll get blood spattered or anything...just trust me on that one. You'll see. You know where to find stuff on that. Just go.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Right now we're calling it The Miss Julie Dream Play Project, which I like, even if it's a little literal. Here's a little more of what it's about--

Nine members of Fell Swoop Playwrights collaborated to riff on two of August Strindberg’s most famous works,MISSJULIE and ADREAMPLAY. Starting with no outline and very little plan, they’ve written an actor’s nightmare of epic proportions.THEMISSJULIEDREAMPLAYPROJECTis the story of one dedicated performer determined to make sense of a wildly rebellious character in an ever-shifting dreamscape.

Saturday, March 02, 2013

take-down of Mark Swed by Amadeus Leopold. Swed reviewed a violin performance he gave a month ago and wrote a dismissive assessment. I didn't see the show so I have no opinion on the content, but I think if I got that review I'd be a little crabby too.

Here's a sample from Swed's review--

During his performance at Royce Hall on Thursday night Leopold also
changed outfits as self-consciously as a teenager preparing for a hot
date. There was the skirt that showed lots of leanly sculpted leg for
Paganini. The leopard-skin tights and large crucifix for, you might say,
a cross-dressed Catholicism suited to Messiaen. A "Don't Mess with
Texas" T-shirt was slipped on for "I Feel Pretty." As a "Cabaret" Carmen
in a tux, he became a he, as a she, as a he.

And here's a sample of Leopold's "open letter"--

I can smell the stench of ignorance from miles away and needn’t your
blunt, condescending warnings such as “flamboyant,” “quite cute,”
“applying ever more makeup,” and “cross-dressed,” especially
ineffective in this case due to the fact that I was wearing all men’s
clothes (by Givenchy, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh, and the most prominently
featured sartorial choice in the show - a classic tuxedo by Dolce &
Gabbana) and have not worn less makeup in the last 3 years (I’d tell you
to look at the photo just above your review, but who knows how blinding
your prejudice really is).

It goes on and on. I'd quote more but there's so much to choose from you should just go read the rest for yourself.

And here's a video about Leopold (formerly Hanh-Bin) who is now my new favorite person of all time.

Friday, March 01, 2013

Victor Campbell, a former secretary and lover of Tennessee Williams, kept a treasure trove of items in a Samsonite suitcase in hopes of one day publishing a memoir, at Williams' request. He shows them to writer Joshua Clark, who writes about them and him in an article in the new Oxford American, "A Suitcase Named Desire."

Williams was 59 when the two met at the
hotel, and at the time Campbell didn’t know who the writer was, though
he had seen the movies based on his plays. “He introduced himself as
Tom, his real name,” Campbell told me. Campbell had been involved in
homosexual relationships since he was 17, and it didn’t take long for
him to guess Williams’s sexual disposition. That afternoon, Campbell
took him to a beach frequented by gay men.

“We were lying on the sand when a hustler
stood up, dropped his swim trunks, and shouted to Tennessee, ‘Hey old
man, give me some money and I’ll let you play with this!’” Campbell
recounted. “Tennessee took a look and responded, ‘Only if you have
change for a dollar!’

“Being around the man was fun—plain and
simple,” Campbell explained. Williams eventually hired him as his
personal secretary and moved him down to his Key West home, and a year
later, the two moved into the fabled apartment at 1014 Dumaine Street,
in New Orleans’s French Quarter, keeping the place in Key West as a
vacation getaway. Williams paid Campbell $300 a week, plus all expenses.
He told Campbell: “I’ll find things for you to do.”